Last week Florida celebrated Literacy Week. For those of you who missed the statewide promotion to remember to read, fear not. I, Warren Parkin a literate, am declaring February Florida Literacy Month. I know that February also marks national Black History Month. The two celebrations are not incompatible. In fact, they compliment each other. Thus, it is a good time to recommend some good books.

Corporations and foreign interests now have more to say in our elections than you or I, thanks to the U.S. Supreme Court. Two weeks ago, the Court broadened the status of corporate personhood with its 5 to 4 ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. Corporate personhood is the doctrine that corporations are considered to be individual persons in the eyes of the law. Any corporation, thanks to this incredibly obtuse interpretation of the intent of the U.S.

Floridians served by Florida Power & Light and Progress Energy can breathe a sigh of relief. Regulators clearly understood the tough realities of balancing a family budget, during this time of severe economic distress for many Floridians and rejected increase proposals by the state’s two largest utility providers.

I have waited and again have not read any comments from the citizens of Williston on the latest actions of the city council.

Maybe I am missing something, or the council is not explaining themselves very well. I read where the council was laying off six or seven employees (at Christimas time?) and in another breath, they are giving all full-time city employees a Christmas bonus (totaling over $6000)?

We find ourselves today at the the start of a new year and, as it would happen, at the beginning of a new decade. Many of us (myself included) find ourselves compelled to make promises regarding behavioral changes in our lifestyles and habits. So often, though, these so-called resolutions are half-heartedly attempted or completely neglected.

The actuality of resolutions is that they are generally created as a way to get someone else to simply shut up. They don't hold a personal motivation and, therefore, are easily discarded.

As I sit down to write this, Martin Luther King Day is just a day off, and there are a number of things happening in our country—and just outside it—that give me pause to reflect on just how far we as a country need to go yet in the name of race relations.

While you are enjoying your busy Christmas holidays, I hope you will take a moment to say a prayer for Sammy Yearty and the Yearty family.

If you look back at the many good things Sammy has done for Levy County, you will come to understand that he is one of those rare human beings who has deep compassion and understanding for those around him.

When the inmates of Lancaster Correctional Institution were building the Levy County Quilt Museum, Sammy was always ready to lend support and contribute whatever was needed.

If you’re planning on retiring sometime early in the new year, now is the time to apply for retirement benefits. The most convenient way to apply for Social Security benefits is online — from the comfort of your home or office. Just go to www.socialsecurity.gov/applyonline.

Our website will walk you through the online retirement application process. We will tell you what information you will need to answer the questions on the application. Further, we will describe the documents you may need to present once you have submitted your application.

I’ve given this matter a lot of thought, lately, and not because I mull profoundly in my spare time, but because my son has asked some specific questions and I know it’s a matter of time before he figures out some of the answers.

I have known Sammy Yearty for about 18 years. I attend most of the commission meetings in Levy County and volunteer with the Levy County Emergency Management. During this time I have observed Sammy in meetings and during storms. I worked in the EOC under his leadership and I have never known Sammy to do anything that was not in the best interest of the citizens of Levy County.

Eight-year-old Virginia O'Hanlon wrote a letter to the editor of New York's Sun, and the quick response was printed as an unsigned editorial Sept. 21, 1897. The work of veteran newsman Francis Pharcellus Church has since become history's most reprinted newspaper editorial, appearing in part or whole in dozens of languages in books, movies, and other editorials, and on posters and stamps.